Monthly Archives: September 2011

Auckland’s Chartwell Trust has been announced as the recipient of the New Zealand Arts Foundation’s Award for Patronage. To celebrate, the Arts Foundation will present the Trust with $20,000 to administer to artists and projects at Chartwell’s discretion. Typical of their benevolence, the Trust has in turn donated $20,000 of their own funds to enable further Arts Foundation awards.

A while back Leg of Lamb reported on the rumoured appointment of Bob Dylan to Larry Gagosian’s stable. Well, Dylan’s first show with the uber dealer opened in New York yesterday and he’s received some heavyweight support from MoMA curator John Elderfield, the man behind MoMA’s current De Kooning retrospective.

Edlerfield, who conducted an interview with the musician for the show’s accompanying catalogue, describes Dylan as “a talented painter”. Talking about the show, Edlerfield stated: “Some people say to me, ‘Would you be interested in these works if they were not by Bob Dylan?’…And I say, ‘Would you be as hard on them if they were not by Bob Dylan?'”

A suite of paintings inspired by Dylan’s recent travels to Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea, The Asia Series runs until October 22nd.

Lady Gaga plays a piano designed by Damien Hirst at the 2009 LA MOCA Gala

Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović has been appointed the Artistic Director of the 2011 Gala at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. She is responsible for programming an evening of music and performance that will feature an as yet undisclosed ‘guest musician’. Given that former AD Doug Aitken roped in Beck and Devendra Banhart last year and Francesco Vezzoli got Gaga to jam on a piano painted by Damien Hirst the year before, I’m guessing it’s going to be HUGE.

Rachel Rakena has created a towering black, um, ‘column’ for the city of Dunedin to coincide with the Rugby World Cup. The 5 meter member, entitled ‘The Haka Peep Show’, apparently takes its shape from Rexona deodorant cans used by rugby players and contains within it video works featuring various haka performances.

The $100,000 sculpture has provoked such an outrage that local Councillor Lee Vandervis has resigned in disgust, stating “”We’re paying $50,000 to rent a black penis in the Octagon? What’s that all about?” For Rakena, the work is more complex. She says it “…considers the sexualisation and commodification of Maori and indigenous sportsmen through the use and exploitation of their masculinity and their culture, in the media”. Big black cock or sculptural exploration of the objectification of male athletes? You decide…